A man convicted on a number of charges, including intent to murder, in a March 2005 incident is seeking damages in a federal civil suit against the Town of Barnstable and members of the police department.

John Nikas, now serving five years in state prison as a result of guilty pleadings in the 2005 incident, filed the case in spring 2007. The suit was first filed in Suffolk Superior Court then moved to U.S. District Court of Massachusetts at the town’s request. It has worked its way through discovery and various pretrial motions and is scheduled for trial on Nov. 17.

The attorney representing the town and officers filed a motion for summary judgment in August, only a portion of which was accepted. On Sept, U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris allowed a reduction in the claims and dismissed charges against four defendants, but allowed excessive force claims to move forward against four officers.

The following claims were allowed to proceed to trial, now scheduled for Nov. 17: intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery and federal and state civil rights violations for the use of excessive force against officers Colin Kelley, Sean Roycroft and Mark McWilliams. The excessive force claim was also allowed for McDonald. In addition, a negligence claim is proceeding against the Town of Barnstable.

Among the defendants is Paul McDonald, then a lieutenant with the department and now its chief. McDonald was not at liberty to speak on the matters.

Regina Ryan of Louison, Costello, Condon & Pfaff, LLP in Boston is representing the officers and town. She did not return a call for comment by press time.

The Incident

According to police reports and documents filed with the court, the incident begins with a wellness call by a family member for an individual staying at the Days Inn on Route 132 in Hyannis. Officers responding to the hotel in the early morning of March 27, 2005 found an intoxicated woman. While there, they noted evidence that Nikas had at least been in the room. The woman acknowledged that he was staying there, but that he came and went.

The officers learned that Nikas had an outstanding warrant and decided to stake out the hotel to see if Nikas returned. He did, and while attempting to make an arrest, Kelley and Nikas engaged in a fight.

According to Kelley’s police report, he believed he was losing the fight, which was taking place in the vicinity of his unmarked cruiser. Nikas managed to get in the cruiser and eventually get it into gear, despite a transmission lock-out device.

The cruiser brushed against Kelley’s leg; the officer drew his weapon. Believing that Nikas was attempting to run him down, Kelley fired two shots into the driver’s side door, both of which missed Nikas, who then drove off and struck a marked cruiser driven by Barnstable Police officer James Melia at the intersection of Enterprise Road and Route 132.

Nikas then drove off at a high rate of speed, estimated at 100 mph by more than one officer, toward the airport rotary. He drove over the rotary and lost control entering on to Barnstable Road, and the unmarked cruiser crashed into a parked truck at Thrifty Car Rental. Nikas then fled and was taken down nearby by a canine unit, arrested and taken to Cape Cod Hospital for treatment.

In March 2007, Nikas changed pleas from not guilty to guilty on all of the charges brought by the Barnstable Police Department in the incident, including assault with intent to murder and assault and battery on a police officer. According to a transcript of that proceeding on file with the court, Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary Nickerson asked Nikas a thorough set of questions about his rights and the facts of the case.

Nikas agreed to the statement of facts presented by the district attorney’s office, which closely match the accounts in the police reports.

Asked by Nickerson if he admitted to those facts, Nikas said, “Yes I do, your honor, I want to take responsibility for my actions that night.”

Nikas received a series of probation sentences and five years in state prison for the assault with intent to murder charge.

Nikas, now representing himself, does not dispute his guilty pleas, including his acknowledgement that he was attempting to murder a police officer, but said the arresting officers used excessive force in his arrest.

Nikas claims that in addition to aggravating an already injured back and left hand, he sustained other injuries.

In support of his claims, Nikas is alleging that the high-speed chase was not as described by the police department. Instead, he claims, it was used to explain away the injuries he sustained during the arrest.

In court filings, Nikas said that inspections and reports of the damage to the vehicle are not consistent with a high-speed crash. He also said that his injuries were not consistent with the type of crash reported by the police department.

He also alleges that the unmarked cruiser, which was supposed to be impounded for evidence as part of his criminal case, was scrapped by the police department and its insurance agent prior to completion of those proceedings in violation of the court order. The vehicle wound up getting shipped to Dubai, according to Nikas.

In a November 2007 affidavit, Nikas wrote that without the vehicle, he “then felt that there was no other legal recourse or avenue left for him to pursue” other than seek relief in a civil suit. He said that the defendants “made in virtually impossable (sic)” to seek relief in previous court proceedings.

Nikas was known to at least one of the officers as a suspect in a January liquor store burglary. At the time of the March 2005 incident, Nikas was on probation, having been released from prison about four months earlier, according to information filed with the court.

In 1983, Nikas pleaded guilty to second degree murder for shooting an individual he had been drinking with twice in the head, receiving a life sentence in return. In 1998 that conviction was overturned on Nikas’s successful request for a new trial, which was upheld by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.